It's OK to be white

An "It's OK to be white" sticker

It's okay to be white[1] or It's OK to be white (IOTBW) is a slogan based on a poster campaign organised on the American imageboard 4chan in 2017, as a "proof of concept" that a "harmless message" would cause a "massive media shitstorm",[2] so that the media backlash against the slogan would help convert white Americans to the far-right.[3] Posters and stickers containing the sentence "It's okay to be white" have been placed in streets in the United States as well as on campuses in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.[1][3] The slogan has been spread by neo-Nazis, and racist groups including white supremacists.[4]

Background

The suggestion for the use of posters with the saying originated on the message board 4chan with the intent of provoking reactions. The saying was later spread by neo-Nazi groups and politically organized racists, including former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke and The Daily Stormer.[4] A report by the ADL states that the phrase itself has a history within the white supremacist movement going back to 2001 when it was used as the title of a song by a white power music group called Aggressive Force as well fliers with the phrase being spotted in 2005 and the slogan being used by a member of the United Klans of America.[1]

Reaction

Discarded "It's okay to be white" cards after a Patriot Prayer protest in Portland, Oregon

Many of the flyers were torn down and some accused the posters of being covertly racist,[4][5] while others, like Jeff Guillory, executive director of Washington State University's Office of Equity and Diversity, argued that there was nothing offensive.[6][7]

Academia

The University of Regina declared the posters "divisive".[8][9] University President Vianne Timmons said: "Simply put, these signs have no place at our university."[10]

A spokesman for a Waterloo Region District School Board commented: "Our schools are safe spaces. We want to see them be safe for all of our children, so to see this kind of thing emerge is a worry."[11]

After the signs were found at Washington State University, Phil Weiler, Vice President of University Communications, said that "one could reasonably believe the intention of the signs is to set a sense of fear and intimidation on campus".[12] Executive director of Washington State University's Office of Equity and Diversity responded to the posters by saying: "In my mind, it's a nonthreatening statement", further stating: "Sure, it's OK to be white. It's OK to be African-American. It's OK to be Latino. It's OK to be gay."[13]

The University of Utah said: "If, indeed, these tactics are meant to silence our work in diversity and inclusion, please know we shall not be deterred."[14] Concordia College said that their President was planning a meeting where students could "discuss the matter".[15]

Police were contacted regarding the flyers being posted at University of California, Berkeley. A police department spokesperson said "the signs did not constitute a hate crime because they did not target a specific race and because no criminal act was committed".[16][17]

In November 2017, Lucian Wintrich attempted to give a speech titled "It's OK To Be White" at University of Connecticut as an invited speaker of the school's Republican club. The speech was protested and came to an end when a protester, employed as the director of career services at Quinebaug Valley Community College,[18] grabbed Wintrich's speech papers from the podium and Wintrich grabbed her, resulting in breach of peace charges against Wintrich.[19] In December 2017, the charges against Wintrich were dropped and the woman who took the papers was charged with attempted sixth-degree larceny and disorderly conduct. She stated through her attorney she took Wintrich's speech as a form of protest, describing Wintrich's "It's OK To Be White" speech as "hateful language".[20][18]

Media

While some media sources reacted in the way the original authors on 4chan had expected,[21] others like TheBlaze described the campaign as trolling, or a prank.[22]

Tucker Carlson on Fox News defended the campaign in a segment entitled "High school Fliers Create Shock and Horror". Carlson asked: "What’s the correct position? That it’s not okay to be white?",[23][24] but Newsweek writer Michael Hayden said Carlson was helping to spread neo-Nazi propaganda by defending the posters, saying the slogan is being promoted by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.[4] Writing for The Washington Post, Janell Ross commented on the poster campaign saying "the white victim construct is one that experts say, not so long ago, only had traction in avowed white supremacists, segregationists and neo-Nazi circles. But today, it animates open and anonymous public discussions of race and shapes the nation’s politics."[3] The Root compared it with the children's book It's Okay To Be Different and said, "but white folks have taken that beautiful sentiment and distorted it to suit their infinite need to center themselves".[25]

The online magazine Jacobite argued that the goal of the meme was to trick certain progressives into attacking an "anodyne" message and thus elicit a "second-order reaction" from outsiders perplexed by the idea that the concept of being white is somehow unacceptable, instead of ignoring the message. The writer claims that the meme attempts to exploit its progressive opponents psychologically.[26]

In other media

According to ThinkProgress, T-shirts with the slogan were put on sale at Shopify by Milo Yiannopoulos.[27]

Markus Persson, founder of Mojang, tweeted the phrase on 30 November 2017.[28][29]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "From 4Chan, Another Trolling Campaign Emerges". Anti-Defamation League.
  2. ↑ McGladrey, Dustin (2017-11-01). ""It's Okay To Be White" Was A Planned Hate Crime From 4chan Internet Trolls". CFWE-FM. Aboriginal Multi-Media Society. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
  3. 1 2 3 "'It's okay to be white' signs and stickers appear on campuses and streets across the country". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-11-05.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "The 'It's Okay to Be White' meme was backed by neo-Nazis and David Duke". newsweek.com. 19 November 2017.
  5. ↑ "'It's okay to be white' posters are covertly racist". 6 November 2017.
  6. ↑ "'It's okay to be white' posters spark mixed responses".
  7. ↑ "Conservative boy wonder Lucian Wintrich arrested at UConn speech titled, 'It's OK to be White'". Fox News. 2017-11-29. Retrieved 2018-01-27.
  8. ↑ "'It's OK To Be White' posters too 'divisive' for Regina University, could be considered vandalism". 23 November 2017.
  9. ↑ "University of Regina is removing It's OKAY To Be White posters from campus". 23 November 2017.
  10. ↑ "'It's okay to be white' posters pop up at U of R; security investigating".
  11. ↑ "'It's okay to be white' signs posted outside schools". 6 November 2017. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  12. ↑ "'It's ok to be white' signs found on WSU campus". KREM-TV. 30 November 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  13. ↑ Nadauld, Taylor (30 November 2017). "'It's okay to be white' posters spark mixed responses". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  14. ↑ "US: University fights back against 'It's OK To Be White' posters on campus". 7 November 2017. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  15. ↑ "'It's OK to be white' signs put up at Concordia College in Moorhead". 4 November 2017. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  16. ↑ Richardson, Bradford (10 November 2017). "'It's OK to be white' campaign rankles higher education". The Washington Times. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  17. ↑ Upwelling, Elise (7 November 2017). "'It's Okay to be White' posters found at UC Berkeley". The Daily Californian. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  18. 1 2 "US woman charged for stealing 'OK to be white' speech". BBC. 11 December 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  19. ↑ Colli, George (29 November 2017). "Conservative speaker arrested at UConn blames university security, protesters". News 8. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  20. ↑ Rondinone, Nicholas (11 December 2017). "Quinebaug College Adviser Charged After Lucian Wintrich's UConn Event". Hartfort Courant. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  21. ↑ Eric Sandy. "4chan Troll Movement Hits Rocky River with 'It's OK To Be White' Signs | Scene and Heard: Scene's News Blog". clevescene.com. Retrieved 2017-11-05.
  22. ↑ "Maryland High School investigating flyers with simple 5-word message about white people". TheBlaze. Retrieved 2017-11-05.
  23. ↑ "Tucker Carlson defends 4chan's "it's okay to be white" campaign". 3 November 2017. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  24. ↑ Very Fake News (4 November 2017). "Tucker Carlson "Is It Okay To Be White"?". Retrieved 30 November 2017 – via YouTube.
  25. ↑ Helm, Angela. "'It's Okay to Be White' Signs Papered All Over the Country Because Everyone Knows White People Are Oppressed". Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  26. ↑ Duffy, Nathan. "THE ASYMMETRIC MEME WARFARE OF "IT'S OK TO BE WHITE"". Jacobite. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  27. ↑ "Shopify is helping monetize the latest white nationalist meme". Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  28. ↑ Judge, Monique. "'Minecraft' Creator Goes Full White Man Denying White Privilege on Twitter". The Root. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  29. ↑ Persson, Markus (30 November 2017). "It's ok to be white". Twitter. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  • "Liberals, Media Lose Their Mind Over Signs That Say 'It's Okay To Be White'". The Daily Wire. 3 November 2017.
  • "Revealed: The white supremacists behind alt-right posters around the city". The Torontoist. 8 November 2017.
  • "It's Okay to Be White". Know Your Meme. Retrieved 2017-11-05.
  • "Campus Left: 'Not OK to Be White'". Minding the Campus.

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